The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

Late in the afternoon, Andy Roddick lost the final match of his career to Juan Martin del Potro. A few hours later, Roger Federer went out in the quarterfinals to Tomas Berdych.

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Roddick had an uphill battle against del Potro from the beginning. But he gave the Argentine a run, winning the first set in a tiebreaker. Del Potro was not moving well in the first set, going back to the night before, when the two played until the rains came. But after del Potro took the second set in a tiebreaker, you could start to get the sense that this match would be Andy’s curtain call. Del Potro and his massive forehand took over the match from there and won it in four.

Thankfully, Andy did not go out on a service break, saving one match point on his serve. It would have been a crime for one of the game’s great servers to get broken to close out his career.

You’ve got to hand it to del Potro – he was extraordinarily classy in his victory. He didn’t do a lot of celebrating, if any at all, during or after the match. He went right for the hug at the net instead of the traditional handshake and appeared to offer Andy some nice words. He only answered one question on court after the match, electing to let Roddick have his time. And he stood and clapped as Roddick exited the stage.

Following Mardy Fish’s withdrawal from the tournament and John Isner’s upset in the third round, Roddick was, appropriately enough, the last American in the men’s draw. He goes out after giving fans one last thrill at the Open, the one major he won.

While Roddick’s loss was not a shocker, Federer’s defeat at the hands of Berdych was a bit of a surprise. Berdych had defeated him at the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2010, but Federer appeared to be rolling through this tournament and had an added jump in his step as the current Wimbledon champion and #1-ranked player.

But I’ve never seen Federer make so many mis-hits. And his serve was off, which is a recipe for disaster against a top 10 player. He took one set off Berdych, but looked out of sync for most of the match.